An enjoyable and amusing introduction to the Australian legal system.
Feature image credit: Pan Macmillan Australia
Jahan Kalantar is a Sydney-based lawyer. Having worked as both a solicitor and barrister, he has a wide range of experience in the Australian legal profession.
In Talk Your Way Out of Trouble, Kalantar gives a rundown of his legal career thus far, while focussing on certain cases or circumstances which he feels contain life lessons for everyone. He writes in short, chatty, chapters, explaining sometimes obscure legal terminology as he goes along.
Anyone who has worked in the legal profession for any length of time has a wealth of stories about fascinating people (good and bad!) and Kalantar is no exception. In this grab-bag of narratives, we read about saving a toilet block, boring a jury into an acquittal, defending someone who assaulted ‘a witch,’ and how powerful the six words ‘we deny your assertions of fact’ can be!
These kinds of dinner-party stories make good reading, and are also a great way to teach the lay person about the fundamentals of the legal system. Humour always makes a lesson go down better. Once he gets to these stories, Kalantar delivers some engaging material. However he spends far too long telling us all about how he got into the legal profession to start with. He takes about seven (albeit short) chapters, to finally get to the point of being qualified. It’s simply not that interesting. There are also some issues with syntax and poor word choice, which should have been ironed out by an editor or at least a proofreader.
Once he gets going though, he writes with warmth and authenticity, and appears to have a genuine love of the law, and desire to help people understand it better. His work seems to be similar in intent to that of The Secret Barrister. But it’s just not as edgy. And although Kalantar is gently humorous, and regales us with some amusing stories, they are hardly side-achingly hilarious, which is a bit of a disappointment.
Overall, Talk Your Way Out of Trouble is an enjoyable and interesting read, and a useful introduction to the Australian legal system for anyone who finds it a mystery.
This would also be a great book for any student taking Legal Studies at school.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Pan Macmillan Australia
Released: April 2025
RRP: $36.99
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